Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) posted on Christmas Eve that the story the birth of Jesus Christ paralleled the plight of Palestinians today, inverting the facts about both Jesus and contemporary Israel.
Ocasio-Cortez wrote on Instagram that “Christ was born in modern-day Palestine” as “part of a targeted population indiscriminately killed to protect an unjust leader’s power.” She added: “Thousands of years later, right-wing forces are violently occupying Bethlehem as similar stories unfold for today’s Palestinians.”
Jesus and his family, she added, would be “Jewish Palestinians” if Jesus had been born today.
The attempt to portray Jesus as “Palestinian” is not new; it is a frequent staple of Palestinian propaganda, though the term “Palestine” was not generally in use to describe Israel, or Judea, until more than a century after Jesus was crucified.
Even well into the 20th century, the term “Palestinian” itself was rejected by local Arabs; it typically referred to Jewish residents of the area until mid-century.
There are no “Jewish Palestinians” in the Palestinian Authority today; Bethlehem under Palestinian rule is considered dangerous for Jews, so much so that tour guides tell Jewish visitors to hide any outward Jewish symbols.
Critics pushed back, with noted Los Angeles rabbi David Wolpe commenting that Ocasio-Cortez had simply borrowed old antisemitic themes:
Jesus was a Jew who suffered. Turning his suffering into a story of Jewish persecution echoes the most toxic antisemitic trope of them all. Shame on you. https://t.co/lm80eZnlAN
— David Wolpe (@RabbiWolpe) December 25, 2023
Former U.S. Ambassador David Friedman also responded:
Jesus was a Jew who suffered. Turning his suffering into a story of Jewish persecution echoes the most toxic antisemitic trope of them all. Shame on you. https://t.co/lm80eZnlAN
— David Wolpe (@RabbiWolpe) December 25, 2023
Jacob Kornbluh, a reporter for the left-wing Forward, noted that Ocasio-Cortez had left out the part about the Palestinians murdering 1,200 Israelis:
AOC describes Israel as a ‘violent right wing occupying force’ in Christmas post. No mention of Hamas terror, the victims of Oct. 7 attack. pic.twitter.com/oajJnYLAOF
— Jacob N. Kornbluh (@jacobkornbluh) December 24, 2023
Similar criticism greeted a priest, Father Edward Beck, who referred to Jesus as a “Palestinian Jew” in an appearance on CNN: “A Palestinian Jew born into a time when his country was occupied, right? … I mean, you can’t make up the parallels to our current world situation right now.”
Beck said that Jesus preached “love your enemies,” but failed to note the lack of a “parallel” to Palestinian attitudes toward Israel today.
Ocasio-Cortez has previously faced criticism for poorly-informed opinions on Israel; she has attempted to deflect that criticism by noting that she is not an “expert.”
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
